BUTTERWORTH: A retiree and a catering business manager lost almost RM800,000 to the Macau scam syndicate in two separate incidents here recently.
In the first incident, the 66-year-old retiree received a call on his mobile phone on Dec 11 last year from a woman called Rohani. She claimed she was from Poslaju and wanted to inquire if he had sent anything from Poslaju Kuantan to Miri.
The man denied but the suspect told him that checks on the Poslaju parcel found a MyKad and a Maybank credit card, believed to belong to the victim.
The call was then transferred to someone, supposedly named "Sergeant Cheong" from the "Kuantan police headquarters", who told the victim that after checks, it was found that he was involved in illegal money laundering activities.
Seberang Prai Tengah district police chief Assistant Commissioner Nik Ros Azhan Nik Ab Hamid said Cheong then transferred the call to one "Sergeant Ang" who asked the victim to withdraw all his money and deposit them into one bank account for the purpose of Bank Negara investigation.
"Between Dec 13 and Dec 26 last year, the victim deposited his money in stages into a RHB Bank account belonging to him.
"The suspect (Ang) had also asked the victim to furnish him details of his ATM card for investigation purposes by Bukit Aman, which the victim did without any hesitation. He also promised to contact the victim within three weeks. However, no calls were ever made.
"The victim then went to check his bank account and found that all his money, RM618,302.58 in total, was gone, " he said today.
Nik Ros Azhan said the case was being investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code for cheating.
In the second incident, the 47-year-old catering business manager received a phone call informing him that he was involved in illegal money laundering and drug activities.
Seberang Prai Utara district police chief Noorzainy Mohd Noor said the suspect had disguised as one "Inspector Raja Afiq" from "Bukit Aman", who allgedly harassased the victim and threatening him with arrest.
"The victim was told by the suspect that he could help him move all his money into a temporary account during the course of investigation.
"The victim agreed and provided all his particulars to the suspect before transferring the money, RM153,180 in total, into several accounts.
"When he finally realised he had been cheated, it was already too late," he added, noting that the case was being probed.